most Mps are now seating at their desks it seems the session may start in a while #mvprotest#maldives

Protesters and riot police clashed violently outside the buildings of parliament in the Maldivan city of Malé on Thursday. The clashes occurred when members of parliament representing former President Mohamed Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) attempted to block the new president, Dr. Mohamed Waheed, from delivering his presidential address to open the parliament. Police confirmed that 14 officers were wounded, four of them seriously, in the clashes with opposition demonstrators.

MDP leader Mohamed Nasheed, former President of the Maldives, has repeatedly claimed he was ousted by Waheed in a military-led coup and called on his supporters to stage Thursday’s demonstration against the new government. Interim President Waheed arrived at the parliament for his address, necessary to open parliament, but was blocked by MDP MPs from entering the building:

The women were taking some risks by protesting, according to Amnesty International. A report from February 26 states that in past protests, some female attendees were “charged with batons and doused with pepper spray by the Maldivian army (MNDF)”. Many were treated for injuries:

Amnesty International learned that one woman had her arm twisted and sprained when MNDF soldiers grabbed her. They then took her glasses off, forced her to open her eye and sprayed it with pepper spray. She said they pressed her against the wall and kicked her with their boots. Another woman said that they began to beat her on her breast, repeatedly shouting they would see to it that she does not breast feed again. A third woman showed her badly bruised arm where she said that soldiers had severely and repeatedly beaten her.

In a blog post written after speaking to Nahseed, Branson said the former President wanted to be sure that it was completely clear what had happened in the Maldives:

Mr Nasheed wanted to be sure that it was completely clear what had happened in the Maldives. Mr Nasheed said that he had been overthrown by a coup. He said that the confusion about what happened in the first two days came about because he was forced to remain in the Presidential Palace in order to keep him away from the press, was therefore incommunicado, and only managed to escape after a couple of days.He said that he was very concerned the Maldives could become another Afghanistan. He believes that the way to resolve this is for interim President Waheed to step down and for The Speaker to hold court for two months.